ARAMPeriodical religious offerings and sacrifices in the ancient near east astrology in the ancient near east the river jordan volume 29, 1&2 2017 LL Aram is a peer-reviewed periodical published by the ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies The Oriental Institute University of Oxford Pusey Lane OXFORD OX1 2LE - UK Tel. +44 (0)1865 51 40 41 email: [email protected] www.aramsociety.org 6HQLRU(GLWRU'U6KD¿T$ERX]D\G8QLYHUVLW\RI2[IRUG 6KD¿TDERX]D\G#RULQVWDFXN English and French editor: Prof. Richard Dumbrill University of London [email protected] Articles for publication to be sent to ARAM at the above address. New subscriptions to be sent to ARAM at the above address. Book orders: Order from the link: www.aramsociety.org Back issues can be downloaded from: www.aramsociety.org ISSN: 0959-4213 © 2017 ARAM SOCIETY FOR SYRO-MESOPOTAMIAN STUDIES All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. iii ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies Forty-Second International Conference religious offerings and sacrifices in the ancient near east The Oriental Institute Oxford University 20-23 July 2015 iv ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies Thirty-Ninth International Conference astrology in the ancient near east The Oriental Institute Oxford University 13-15 July 2015 v ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies Forty-First International Conference the river jordan The Oriental Institute Oxford University 13-15 July 2015 vi Table of Contents Volume 29, Number I (2017) Religious Offerings in the Ancient Near East (Aram Conference 2015) Dr. Katharina Schloder (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany) ‘Religious Offerings and Ritual Depositions in the Sanctuary of Tell Bazi, Syria, (1st to 2nd century AD)..........................................................................................1-14 Dr. Mateusz Kłagisz (University of Krakow, Poland) ‘Indo-Iranian Animal Offerings in the Light of the Essai sur la Nature et la fonction du Sacrifice by Hubert and Mauss’..........................................................................................15-33 Dr. Uzi Avner (The dead Sea-Arava Science Center and the Arava Institute, Israel) and Liora Kolska Horwitz (National History Collections. The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) ‘Offerings, Sacrifices and Innovations in the Desert Prehistoric Religion’.....................................................................35-70 Dr. Giuseppe Minunno (University of Pisa, Italy) Ritual Activities at Tell Afis in the Iron Age’....................................................71-88 Prof. Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme (University of Copenhagen, Danemark) ‘A Lingering Memory: Materiality and Divine Rememberance in Aramaic Dedicatory Insciptions’.................................................................89-104 Dr. Krzysztof Ulanowski (University of Gdańsk, Poland) ‘War Sacrifices in Mesopotamia’....................................................................105-117 Dr. Julye Bidmead (Chapman University, USA) ‘Gendered Gifts: Women’s Religious Offerings in the First Millennium BCE Mesopotamia and the Levant’.....................119-131 Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Schmitt (University of Münster, Germany) ‘Bird Sacrifices in the Hebrew Bible and their Ritual Functions’..............133-140 Dr. Zuzanna Wygnańska (University of Warsaw, Poland) ‘Equid and Young Dog Burials in a Ritual Landscape of Syria during the Bronze Age’...................................................................................141-160 Volume 29, Number I, (2017) Astrology in the Ancient Near East (Aram Conference 2014) Dr. Louise M. Pryke (University of Sydney, Australia) ‘The Bull of Heaven: Animality and Astronomy in Tablet VI of the Gilgamesh Epic’..............................................................161-168 Dr. Simone Isacco Maria Pratelli (University of Pisa, Italy) ‘In Search of Truth: Astronomy versus Astrology in the Syriac Book of Causes’.........................................................................169-175 Dr. Darrelyn Gunzburg (University of Bristol, UK) ‘The Representation of Celestial Images in the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, Italy’...................................................177-194 Dr. Netanel Anor (Freie Universtät Berlin, Germany) ‘Is the Liver a Reflection of the Sky?’............................................................195-206 vii Volume 29, Number II (2017), The River Jordan (Aram Conference 2015) Dr. Robert Miller (The Catholic University of America) ‘Mythic Dimensions of the Sources of the River Jordan’.............207-219 Dr. Yigal Levin (University of Bar Ilan, Israel) ‘The Jordan River in Biblical Geography: The Border of the Land or a Part of the Land?’............................221-234 Dr. Robert W. Smith (Mid-Atlantic Christian University, USA) ‘Lt. WM. F. Lynch and the River Jordan’.............................................235-251 Dr. Gerald L. Mattingly (Johnson University, USA) ‘Revisiting Nelson Glueck’s ‘The River Jordan (1946)’...................253-262 Dr. Kenneth Silver (The Institute for Bible Land Stucies) “He walked on ‘the other side’ of the River Jordan.’ The Early Church in Ancient Israel and beyond the River Jordan in the First to the Fourth Centurt AD.”............................................263-337 Dr. Francesco Zanella (University of Bonn, Germany) ‘On the Banks of the Jordan: Presence and Perception of the River Jordan in Antique and Late Antique Jewish Texts’........................................339-347 Prof. Ben-Zion Rosenfeld (University of Bar-Ilan, Israel) ‘The Geographic Course of the Jordan River, according to the Perspective of Residents of the Western Bank of the River, in the First Centuries CE’.....................................................................349-363 Dr. Joan E. Taylor (King’s College London, UK) ‘John the Baptist on the River Jordan: Localities and their Significance’......................................................365-383 Mr. Yosef Stepansky (Israel Antiquities Authority) ‘The Archaeological Survey of the Carazim Plateau and Upper-Jordan River Bed: a Diachronic Overview of Sites - and New Insights’......................385-401 Dr. David Moster (New York University, USA) “The Jordan as a non-boundary and the half tribes of Manasseh.”.........................................................403-412 Prof. David Graf (University of Miami, USA) ‘The Rise and Fall of the Peraia’.........................................................413-446 Dr. Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom (Germany) ‘Herod’s Shrine to Augustus at Omrit: Lamps from the Sanctuary - Sanctuary Lamps?...............................447-461 Dr. Julia Hoffmann-Salz (University of Köln, Germany) ‘Why did Herod chose Banias as the Site for a Sanctuary for Augustus?’...........................................................463-475 Mr. Sufyan Al-Karaimeh (Leiden University, the Netherlands) ‘The Water Tunnels in the Eastern Hills of the Jordan River’....................................................................................477-493 viii Dr. Haim Perlmutter (University of Bar Ilan, Israel) ‘The Jordan River: Innovative uses of the Jordan River by the Local Inhabitants during the First Centuries CE’..........495-504 Dr. Minna Silver (Independent Researcher) “The Jordan Valley as a Gateway for the Intermediate Bronze People to Jericho?”...........................505-532 Dr. Robert E. Rook (Towson University, USA) “Visions, Plans, and Chimeras: Americans and the Jordan Valley since the Late Antebellum Period.”.......................................................533-539 $උൺආ1ൾඐඌඅൾඍඍൾඋ A ARAM: forthcoming conferences.....................................................................................541-543 B ARAM: forthcoming volume............................................................................................543-546 C ARAM: books received.....................................................................................................546-547 ARAM 29: 1&2 (2017), 385-401 THE JORDAN RIVER RAVINE NORTH OF THE SEA OF GALILEE: THE SITES AND NEW INSIGHTS YOSEF STEPANSKY (Israel Antiquities Authority) Abstract The recent publication of the Archaeological Survey of the Rosh Pinna Map under the auspices of the Israel Antiquities Authority (Stepansky 2012), which includes on its eastern side the Jordan River ravine, gives us an opportunity for a fresh and updated review of the ravine and its main archaeological sites, along with a new appraisal of the traditions and history pertaining to the unique ‘Banat Yaqub’ sites on its northern edge. Although a little north of the ravine, we shall also take this opportunity for suggesting an identification for the biblical city of refuge ‘Golan Babashan’ (Deut. 4:43). PREFACE “Ten miles of Torrent… How great the descent of the Jordan is we can see pretty plainly here by a glance…while the loud noise of the river foaming at our feet tells also to the ear how fast the Jordan flows” (Macgregor 1904, p. 277). Since Macgregor’s 1869 pioneering canoe-cruise account of this roughest section of the Jordan River between the Hula Lake and the Lake of Galilee, much water has flowed down the river-bed and some significant changes have taken place in its landscape. In the 1950’s the riverbed south of the Hula Lake was lowered by a number